Formosa Plastics urged to step up accident prevention efforts

Preston W. Chen, executive director of the Petrochemical Industry Association of Taiwan, said at a general assembly of the association that Formosa Plastics should reflect on the accidents, but he also urged the public to give the company more time to deal with the situation.

Chen also said he regretted that the petrochemical industry had not done enough to change the public's misconception about the sector and that one of the industry's main tasks in the future would be to do more to protect the environment to ease public concerns.

Despite mounting opposition to the development of the petrochemical industry, Chen said it makes a vital contribution to the country's economic growth, making its existence necessary, and many countries, including Singapore, are still expanding the scale of their petrochemical capacity.

Chen, who hopes to build a new Kuokuang petrochemical complex on Taiwan's western coast in Changhua County but is facing stiff resistance, said the industry's importance is reflected by the fact that 80 percent of the raw materials for the high tech sector and 90 percent of consumer products are made from petrochemicals.

The annual output value of Taiwan's petrochemical industry is about NT$1.7 trillion, accounting for 30 percent of the value produced by the country's manufacturing sector, Chen added.

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